As long term Waffler readers may remember, I had quite a difficult time picking out a paint color for my laundry room (you can see the before and after here). Choosing a color for my little laundry room is one thing; choosing a color for the outside of my house might just make my head explode.

Chessie, however, is up to the task. She just needs a little help narrowing down her choices. Here she explains:

When we bought our two family in Somerville, MA three years ago, we gutted and updated a lot of the interior. We love the inside now–the outside, not so much. It’s a “classic” 1970s light green vinyl that I guess was considered modern and low maintenance then but is just ugly now.

We can’t afford to re-side with wood or a modern siding like hardy plank right now, but we recently learned about vinyl safe paints that could work to update our exterior. We have narrowed down the color options to yellow, green, and blue. The front of our house is lacking in a lot of architectural detail so we are wary of painting a color that will overwhelm. What do people think?

Take a look at the bottom three color swatches in the picture below. Do you think Chessie should paint her house yellow, green, or blue?

And while you’re thinking about exterior colors, Chessie would also like you to weigh in on whether you like the idea of adding panels to the front of the house to boost its architectural appeal. It might look something like this — though the interior blocks would be whatever color they decide to paint the house, not the green in the image.

Like this:

Fo, the creator or Drawn{2}Style, has a waffle and it’s a good one. I’ll let her explain:

After a recent visit to NYC, I’ve been dreaming about toting these two Celine handbags and am seriously considering investing in one. I love both designs and they come in a wide assortment of color combinations. Plus, they’re both good work bags and can fit paper files, etc. Which would you choose, the “Trapeze” or “Luggage?”

Here is the Trapeze bag in various colors:

Celine

Celine

Celine

And here is the Luggage tote:

Fo hasn’t decided on the color of bag she wants yet, so lets just judge this one on design — which style bag do you like best?

Remember how Janette from The2Seasons was waffling about whether or not to paint the armoire in her mudroom?

the2seasons

57% of readers thought Janette should paint it, while 43% encouraged her to keep it as is. And what did Janette decide to do? Here she with the answer:

Thanks to everyone who voted on my waffle. I am going to make the armoire the best of both worlds. I will leave the exterior unpainted, but I am going to add some additional shelves to the inside and paint it a soft gray with some hints of blue. It will keep its traditional look on the outside but have a pop of color to give a new and fresh look inside.

When Rayna’s husband purchased this chicken coop she was thrilled…about the fresh eggs, that is. The chicken coop, not so much.

Rayna’s predicament prompted me to post a waffle asking voters to choose their favorite coop from a variety of different styles. The clear winner was this cottage-y coop, which received 44% of the votes.

Heather Bullard

This modern, clean-lined coop (which even has a skylight) received 26%.

The Art of Doing Stuff

And Rayna’s favorite? This modern cube only received 12%. (It was my favorite, too, Rayna!)

Dwell

This last waffle was inspired by another friend. Marie was giving a dinner party and wondered whether or not to ask people to take off their shoes after entering the house.

47% of readers find the shoes-off request to be totally acceptable, while 28% find it a bit annoying, and 15% have never been asked. If you didn’t get a chance to weigh in, what are your feelings about being asked to take off your shoes?

Warm welcomes! I’m M.J. – mom, wife, educator, and designer living in the Midwest. You can usually find me in front of my MacBook Pro or behind the wheel of my minivan (it has a sunroof so somehow I’m still cool) driving my kiddos to and fro.

One month ago my blog was born. Are blogs birthed or do they hatch? I’m not really sure, but I can tell you that this one has definitely been a lengthy labor. And, just like childbirth, I’m going to go ahead and forget all the painful, ungodly details and plow on through to the happy moments.

My web home is Pars Caeli (pars kilee), a piece of Heaven. It’s my HQ for the designs, projects, gifts, and ideas that inspire me and my family. I get my kiddos involved in everything that goes on around here so feel welcome to knock over that full glass of milk or leave the screen door wide open…we’ll still want you to come back over and see us soon!

Recently, my favorite umbrella, given to me by my mother-in-law (who is awesome) broke. It’s a lovely automatic in pink and orange (they’re such fantastic color playmates), and the vintage/photo collage aspect to the print always intrigued me.

But, now I guess I’ll have to make it into a lovely weatherproof clutch. Oh, wait, I have no idea how to do that. (Mom??)

Like this:

For years I’ve been trying to bribe my sister-in-law, Bethany, to move out here to Seattle, but it hasn’t worked. Now that she and her husband, Dave, have opened their own photography studio in Des Moines, Iowa — Dreamstate Photography — I might as well just give up. But I won’t hold any grudges; in fact, I’m more than happy to post Bethany’s waffle about how best to freshen up their photography studio’s front meeting room.

Here is Bethany to explain her waffles:

Our current studio will hopefully not be our forever studio, so I am trying to make our meeting room look as warm and inviting as possible without spending a ton of money on things that may not be functional in a few years. My first waffle is about how best to position our curvy brown couch and chairs (the actual chairs in the pictures below will be replaced…just wait until my second waffle).

Do you like the couch against the wall with the chairs to the right of it?

The couch in the corner with the chairs on either side of it?

Or the couch in the corner with the chairs on either side of the tv?

Okay, now for waffle #2: the chairs. Bethany thinks the space-saving nature of armless chairs will be a good choice for the meeting room. Here are her options:

Like this:

Remember Jameson from the wine blog Jameson Fink? He was wondering which of these wine labels most tickled your design fancy.

Domaine Pouillon

And Co

The results were close. 53% of voters chose the Domaine Pouillon while 47% preferred the And Co label. And Jameson’s choice? Here he is with an explanation:

It’s not easy to choose between a wine label with sizzle (And Co.) and one with sentiment (Domaine Pouillon). I happen to like a little bit of both on my wine labels and in my life. I was happy to see such a close vote as I think it speaks to the originality of both contenders. But the reason I put it to a vote was to help make a decision, so I’m going with the Domaine Pouillon. The people have spoken, and they (slightly) prefer the confluence of coffee and wine rendered in such a charming manner. The most important thing to remember, however, is both wines are delicious and highly recommended!

Traditional Home

While we’re on the topic of coffee (gray and coffee are related if you live in Seattle like I do) I posted a waffle a few weeks ago about gray kitchens. It turns out a high number of voters are enthusiasts of the gray look: 63% of voters said they were fans while 20% dislike them and 17% can take them or leave them. Personally, I’m a fan providing some pops of color to balance the gray. Which is a good segue to my next waffle update…

I couldn’t decide whether to keep the above counter stools in my kitchen (pro: the blue provides a nice pop of color, con: the metal legs gauge into the wood counter supports) or trade them out for the West Elm’s Klismos Stools as seen on the left in the picture below (pro: great lines, con: too much dark wood).

25% of voters encouraged me to keep the Klismos stools, 30% wanted me to stick with the blue stools and 45% thought I should find something new. Well, I returned the Klimos stools — while I loved the look, I ultimately think I need to break up the dark wood tones — but I’ve been having trouble finding an alternative. I tried these Spin stools from Crate and Barrel

But they both looked terrible. Terrible! I thought the aluminum would work nicely with our stainless steel appliances, but it was a clear no-go. Even Ken — king of “anything that’s functional is fine” was shaking his head. So the search will continue. And if you have any epiphanies about what stool I should get — because I’m sure that’s what your next epiphany will be about — let me know.

Like this:

When I saw these lights hanging in a store on a recent trip to Portland, I was surprisingly drawn to them. I don’t have any cage lighting in my house or on my “want-to-buy” list, but I found this display kind of cool. Cage lighting has become quite the popular choice for interiors these days. What do you think about this trend?